CBS.MarketWatch.com

The stocks had been trading close to their opening prices but posted bigger gains once the Fed raised interest rates by 25 basis points and sparked a relief rally on Wall Street. See Market Snapshot.

Even Snowball.com
SNOW, -0.42%
which seemed stuck near its offering price, ended the day with a victorious 39 percent gain.

New! Smart Edgar

The IPOs debuted in a rough Nasdaq environment as the tech-heavy index was down 1 percent or more earlier in the day.

Then, as the Nasdaq turned around, the fortunes of the newcomers were lifted.

Caldera's performance kept pace with the average first-day gain of 111 percent for 115 IPOs thus far this year, according to CommScan Analytics.

David Menlow, president of IPO Financial, told CBS.MarketWatch.com that nowadays an IPO won't see any big debut-session gains if it doesn't price at the top of its range or up its range ahead of its IPO.

Such was the plight faced by Snowball.com
SNOW, -0.42%
which opened at 11 1/16, just above its $11 per share asking price. It had failed to move far from its open in the aftermarket with trades of 11 1/16 in midday action, but by the end of the day it had rallied, closing at 15 5/16.

Caldera joins Linux lineup

Caldera
CALD, +0.42%
closed at 29 7/16, well above its $14 price. The stock zoomed up to 26 at its open, fell to a low of 23 and then climbed on volume of 15.5 million shares.

The company was expected to offer 5 million shares at between $10 and $12, but it instead priced each share at $14 late Monday, indicating strong demand for the new issue. It had previously been expected to be priced at between $7 and $9.

The Orem, Utah, company is a vendor of Linux software products, meaning that its IPO would be measured against those of VA Linux Systems
lnux
and Red Hat
rhat
which debuted at warp speed last year.

The stock opened at 30 1/2 and rose in the aftermarket on volume of 11.6 million.

It priced a big $3 above its expected range of $16 to $18, upped from $13 to $15.

It sold 9 million shares via lead underwriter Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown in a bid to raise about $189 million.

The company said it's the only microfluidics or lab-on-a-chip company with access to technology and intellectual property for the genomics and pharmaceutical drug-screening markets.

Aclara had been floundering in the aftermarket along with the Nasdaq Biotech Index
"
but both later surged. The index, which had fallen 3.4 percent earlier in the day, ended the volatile session up 1.3 percent.

Snowball.com

Snowball.com
SNOW, -0.42%
Chief Executive Mark A. Jung acknowledged that "the environment has been getting tougher" for initial public offerings, but he stressed that the company's business model is different from those of many other content and e-commerce sites.

Snowball.com positions itself as an online mall delivering a wide audience of 13- to 30-year-olds.

Snowball.com is a business-to-business player in that it hooks up e-commerce sites with its audience as the 29th-largest property on the Internet, with about 6 million unique users, he said.

Snowball.com targets what it calls Generation I, the Internet generation that spends a much larger portion of its disposable income online. Retail partners include Drugstore.com and Gloss.com.

The involvement of Goldman Sachs as lead underwriter on the deal marks another lukewarm new-issues-market result for the highly regarded investment bank.

Goldman-led e-commerce IPOs such as 1-800-Flowers
FLWS, +1.38%
and EToys
etys
are trading under their offering prices as Wall Street has cooled toward e-tail firms and grown increasingly concerned about when they'll show the profitability that their valuations portend.

To be sure, Goldman has had many successful IPOs outside the e-tail sector, bringing to market such companies as Tibco Software
tibx
and Juniper Networks
JNPR, -2.08%

Glut of deals

Not only did Tuesday's IPOs launch in rough Nasdaq seas, but the overall new-issues market is becoming a bit jaded by the large menu of deals investors have had to choose from.

Menlow said the IPO fervor that's characterized the year thus far has seemed to slow. As an example, home-oriented site ImproveNet
IMPV, -1.18%
which debuted last week, has fallen well below its offering price.

"The biggest concern we have is the heartbeat seems to be fading for the IPO market for the near term," Menlow said. "But I'm in no way singing the epitaph for the IPO market. For the near term, investors want to be bedazzled. It's just not happening with that many companies. The bar is just moving higher and higher with each week."

Nevertheless, some deals such as those from Aclara BioSciences and Caldera Systems look good, Menlow said.

Beating the IPO drum

Beatnik Inc. said late Friday that it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering to be led by Robertson Stephens, along with CIBC World Markets and Piper Jaffray.

San Mateo, Calif.-based Beatnik was founded in 1996 by musician Thomas Dolby, whose best-known songs are "She Blinded Me With Science" and "Hyperactive." He now goes by the name Thomas Dolby Robertson.

According to a Beatnik news release, the company brings interactive music and sound to the Web through its technology, content and community.

BuildNet, a business-to-business construction-industry e-commerce company, has filed with the SEC for as much as $230 million worth of common stock. See full story.

Kozmo.com, in which e-tail powerhouse Amazon.com
AMZN, -0.89%
holds a substantial stake, has filed to raise $150 million. The company delivers rental videotapes and convenience items in several major U.S. cities. See full story.

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